Nicholas Chamfort

People are governed by the head; a kind heart is of little value in chess.

His passions make man live, his wisdom merely makes him last.

The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless.

An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet, who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living.

In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are.